Ondria Durocher Witt: Press

When Ondria Durocher was 2, her parents made an audio tape of her singing "Jesus Loves Me."

When she was 18, Ondria walked away from the chance to perform in a prestigious college choir.

Now at age 23, she's preparing to release her debut CD, "Songs Along the Way."

Ondria writes of her title track: "To me, life is a journey, and I finally realized that no matter where someone goes in their life, they're not alone. Our Lord Jesus is with us every step of the way, and the song is a sweet reminder of that. We may face trouble and want to run from it, and we may feel like our hands are tied at times, but the Lord never stops reaching out to us, and guiding us through life."

***

In the spring, Ondria sang at Calvary Lutheran Church in Spencer at an evening prayer service. It was a great experience, she says. She prefers singing as part of a worship service.

"I love it," she says. "I really love it."

Ondria will be performing next Sunday, July 23, at Neal Road Baptist Church. The concert, which begins at 6:30 p.m. is free and the community is invited.

Ondria and friends will sing and perform Gospel tunes, as well as contemporary Christian favorites. Ondria will sing original songs from "Songs Along the Way."

"We're going be doing more gospel and more upbeat music this time," Ondria says. "I've never done a concert at a Baptist church before."

***

Concerts are one way that Ondria can meet people and share her music; her CD will be another avenue.

Another way that Ondria shares her talent is through the choir at Center Celebration, the contemporary service at St. John's Lutheran Church.

"We have a great group of talented people who are committed to that service and that group," Ondria says. "It makes me want to give my all."

A native of Patterson, N.J., Ondria and her family moved to Salisbury in 1998 by way of Gastonia when her father, Rob, became music director at St. John's. Ondria's family also includes mom Leslie and sister Britt. The whole family has always sung, although Ondria is now the one who's pursuing a career as a singer.

"Music is life for us," Rob says.

He adds of his daughter's project: "It's a way for her to share her music. She researched every angle and aspect on how to do that. We didn't want to discourage her."

***

Ondria has always sung. Remember that cassette tape?

Because Rob's work has always involved classical music, he played Purcell and Handel for his daughter from the time she was a child.

"Being a church musician, I could start to increase their knowledge of all kinds of music," he says.

That included introducing his daughters to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Stones, Beatles.

"I wanted her to have a broader appreciation for music," he notes.

And Ondria always sang in church.

"Because she did it so well and was never shy, I did give her the opportunity to sing in church," Rob says. "People would always be amazed that this adult-type music came out of this little girl."

Rob tried to balance the reality of the church needs with his desire to have his daughter sing.

"We encouraged her," he says.

"My parents were very good at reminding me why we were there," Ondria says.

Ondria continued to sing through middle school and high school.

A phenomenal pianist and organist, Rob tried to give Ondria piano lessons.

"That did not work," he says firmly. "We thought, that's not what she does, so let's just not push it."

Ondria graduated from West Rowan High School and went on to Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory. The college's a capella choir has a long and distinguished history.

But Ondria chose not to be a part of that group -- a decision that devastated her father.

"It was as if she released that joy of music," he says.

Ondria became a part of a group that was not interested in music. They didn't sing, so she didn't either.

"I was in a spiteful mode," Ondria admits. "I didn't want to do what my dad was doing."

***

Ondria considers Lenoir-Rhyne a "commuter college." Everyone went home on the weekends. She and some friends decided they wanted more of a college experience, so she moved to Wilmington.

Leslie was diagnosed with breast cancer in the summer of 2004. One month later, Ondria's grandmother was diagnosed with lymphoma.

Ondria and Britt decided that school could wait.

"Britt and I played chauffeur and nurse," Ondria says.

Leslie was being treated at Duke, while Rob's mom was at Baptist.

After surgeries and months of treatment, Leslie went into remission, and Rob's mom recovered, too.

"Through all these processes, I've really come back into my faith," Ondria says. "I see it as a complete blessing. With my friends, I was being who they wanted me to be. Once I came back and started going to church again, I didn't want to miss a Sunday. The songs we use in our contemporary service really spoke to me. I really do believe in the healing power of music."

***

Rob has a bit of a split personality when it comes to his responsibilities for St. John's music program. In the sanctuary, he plays Bach and Handel. Before the Celebration Singers choir practice, he warms up with Pink Floyd or Queen.

Father and daughter share an easy interaction. She gives him a peck on the cheek when she comes in for choir practice.

They sing a few of Ondria's songs -- she wrote the words, Rob wrote the music.

"We'd look at the words, what character, what shape we wanted to give those words," he says.

Some of Ondria's compositions include "Lay It Down," "Amazing," "Here We Are in Paradise" and "Not a Fad."

Ondria wrote "Linda's Song," in memory of Linda Bethea Bost, a dear friend from church who died in 2005.

"She was our angel, she was our sweet sweet angel, we know she's watching us and smiling from above," Ondria sings.

She also wrote the title track on her CD.

***

Even though Ondria stopped singing for a time, she continued to write poems and lyrics.

When she moved back home, Center Celebration was just starting to take off. Rob asked his daughter to join the choir.

"She felt like an outsider, but she came," he says. "Gradually, she started to get involved in Center Celebration."

"I think she's got an incredible, melodic voice," says Wade Rouzer, a church member who attends Center Celebration. "She just has a wonderful spirit for singing. She loves what she's doing and that shines through."

Ondria and Britt were and are an enormous help to their dad in selecting new music.

"They listen to contemporary Christian CDs and suggest music," he says.

Now Ondria is working on her own CD.

"She just had this tremendous desire to do a CD," Rob says. "Mandy had just done one and I was so glad to help her with that."

Mandy Sharkey, another member of the Center Celebration, released a CD, "Rest Assured," last fall.

"What gave me the push to do it was Mandy and her CD," Ondria says.

Ondria sought Mandy's counsel.

"I encouraged her to go for it," Mandy says. "You need to do it now while you're young."

Mandy and her husband, Jason, have a son, Trent, who will be a year old in November.

"I'm really proud of her," Mandy says. "She's a really talented young lady. She is really supportive of our whole group and what our actual purpose is. She's stuck by the group. She wants to be a part of the group. She's a great person. She just shines.

"I hope she becomes what she wants to become. I'm happy I could be some kind of inspiration, however miniscule."

***

Starting in the fall, Ondria went to the recording studio for a few hours at a time.

Besides Ondria on vocals and her dad on piano/keyboard, musicians include Derek Sjoblom on guitar; Megan Meek on bass guitar; and Blake Scearce on drums and percussion. Studio engineer is Bob Engle.

Right now, Ondria and her dad are mixing or editing the music.

Ondria plans to release her CD in the fall, with an order of 1,000 copies. She'll have a release party at St. John's.

"We were thrilled that the stepped back into it," Rob says. "I admire her tenacious strength. Maybe we can dream vicariously through her. She has the chance to pursue that as much as she wants to. One day she'll go sailing without us. That breaks my heart to think that."

But for now, Rob is right there at the keyboard, in front of his daughter.

"There are many times I'm in awe of it," Rob says of Ondria's singing. "There's not one single time she's singing something that we're not a partner and a unit. But she's the messenger.

"You think, this is your child, but God is singing through her.

"I believe her goal is to hit it big -- why would she not?" he says. Hearing her one day on Christian radio, he says, would be "so cool."

"But if all she ever does is share her musically locally, that's great, too."

As long as Ondria is reaching out through her music, she's happy.

"I feel like I'm doing what God wants me to do," she says.

If you'd like to have Ondria Durocher sing at your church, contact her at 704-798-2413 or booking@ondriadurocher.com.

More than a dozen voices soar in harmony, singing, "Glory Hallelujah, Jesus lifted me!"

Others in the room clap, raise their hands and join in the song.

But they're not signing in church, and this group is not a typical choir.

The Center Celebration Musicians are performing at a local restaurant and bar. Accompanying them is not an organ, but musicians playing two electric guitars, two keyboards and a drum set.

If you'd happened to go for supper or a beer at Las Palmas in downtown Salisbury on the last Sunday night in January, you'd have stumbled into Spiritual Music Open Mic Night.

While enjoying the restaurant's Mexican/Southwestern cuisine, patrons listened, first, to the music of the contemporary worship team from St. John's Lutheran Church and then, to musicians of any faith who wanted to take the microphone and perform.

"It was a great way to spend a Sunday evening," said Janet Millspaugh, who dined at the restaurant that night specifically to see Center Celebration.

Whether they were filled by regular customers or regular churchgoers -- or both -- there was hardly an open table on the ground floor of Las Palmas. The music rose high above the sounds of drink shakers and sizzling fajitas. For some, it was a bit too much.

"It was a little loud for the size of the room," said Frank Van Hoy, a Mocksville resident who wasn't expecting a musical performance that night. "They could mic it down so it wasn't so overwhelming. But it was fun to have music."

The Center Celebration ensemble was diverse, with women and men, dark skin and light, teenagers and graying hair. Each one of the 15 singers held a folder or three-ring binder containing the words to the night's songs.

Their set mixed original songs with gospel themes and contemporary Christian hits. They even performed their own interpretation of "Desperado," a song that was a hit for mainstream country rockers The Eagles.

"The church was looking at a way to reach a different group of people than in the traditional services," Jim Anderson, guitarist and president of Center Celebration, explained.

About four years ago, as an answer to that search, St. John's developed a contemporary service with a worship team that now includes more than 25 musicians.

"In some other churches ... people don't clap during the service, they don't laugh, they don't cry, and the music might be 200 or 300 years old," Mike Jones, a Center Celebration member who's known to add a country twang to the group's sound. "It's what I would call stiff -- I wouldn't say it's bad, but there's a lot of people turned off by church like that."

Jones organized the Las Palmas performance and explained he was intended to be a way for people to hear a new kind of church music.

"If people saw the changes going on in some churches, they'd be surprised," he said.

John Gray, owner of Las Palmas restaurant, hopes more people of faith will also take notice of the gospel music featured at his business. He embraced the idea of Jones' Spiritual Music Open Mic Night.

After Center Celebration performed, gospel musician Jim Gobble took the microphone. He had an acoustic guitar and a folksy voice and sang mostly original songs. His set did include one cover song -- another Eagles hit "Peaceful Easy Feeling."

Gobble, who does not read music, calls his talent "a gift from God."

He said he released his first album, "In The Garden," in 2004, and he's currently in the studio working on his second CD.

"I couldn't get the grin off my face," Gobble said of the Center Celebration performance. "I could tell that they were singing not just with their mouths but with their hearts. I found kindred spirits."

Ondria Durocher, a member of the Center Celebration group, is also developing a solo career and has been working on an album for a little more than a year. She said her music is an expression of her faith.

"I believe in the power of music. It can heal someone's soul, Durocher said. "It happened to me."

When her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Durocher said she went through a period when her faith was rocky. Singing helped to restore her belief to the point where, in her words, it was "exploding out" of her.

Durocher's father, Rob, is the music director at St. John's. He rehearses with Center Celebration every Monday evening in preparation for each 9 a.m. Sunday worship service.

As a classically trained musician, Rob Durocher was initially skeptical of the contemporary style.

"There's a certain type of music I expected in a church," the director admitted. "But I learned to loosen up and accept different kinds. I think that this type of music speaks to an entire group of people that the church tends to miss when they are afraid to take a risk.

"This venue was a risk. . . . Some of us resisted it because we didn't get it. But now we get it.

"After tonight, we get it."

Songs Along the Way


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By Susan Shinn

Salisbury Post

Talk about acts of God.

Last fall, Ondria Durocher returned to the music studio to finish up work on her new CD, "Songs Along The Way."

Unfortunately, a power surge had knocked out half her project — the vocals she'd worked so hard on for the past year were lost.

"My father was just in shock," says Ondria, 24.

She put her head in her lap and cried.

Her producer asked her, "Do you think you can start singing today?"

Ondria wasn't ready to sing that day, but a couple of weeks later, as soon as the studio had an opening, she sang again.

"We got it done," Ondria says. "The outcome was bittersweet. Overall, it turned out so much better.

"In the end, it worked out fine."

Finally, 1,000 copies of "Songs Along The Way" will be delivered to Ondria this week.

A release party is set for 4-6 p.m. Sunday at St. John's Lutheran Church in the Center.

At 4 p.m., she'll perform several songs from the album.

Performing with her will be her dad Rob on keyboards; Derek Sjoblom, guitar; Megan Meek, bass guitar; Ken Mowery, keyboards. Sister Britt will provide back-up vocals.

"Songs Along The Way" has a total of nine tracks — two more than Ondria originally planned.

Along with the title track, songs include "Amazing," "Lay It Down," "Not a Fad," "Linda's Song," "Here We Are in Paradise,"

Sjoblom wrote an instrumental, "Ontitled."

The new songs include "Jesus, Lord of All," and a version of "The Lord's Prayer" that Rob wrote for use at the church's contemporary service.

After the performance, Ondria will give her remarks and thank yous.

Then there will be time for refreshments, a CD signing and giveaways.

The CDs are priced at $12.81, which includes tax.

After Sunday, they will be available through Ondria's Web sites, indieheaven.com/artists/ondriadurocher, myspace.com/ondriadurocher, and ondmusic.com.

The experience hasn't dulled Ondria's enthusiasm to make more music.

"We want to do another one," she says. "We have new songs we'd like to record. We even want to use the same studio. They were so nice and so professional."

Ondria is now familiar with the process and knows what to expect.

"It was really just me going out on a limb, making calls, and it just went from there," Ondria says of finding a studio for her project.

It's been a busy year for Ondria.

In addition to working full-time and finishing her CD, she and fiance Sacha Witt are planning a November wedding.

She continues to share her music at Center Celebration and at other churches.

In July, Ondria will sing at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hickory, and in August, she'll be at Morning Star Lutheran Church in Matthews.

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For more information or if you'd like to have Ondria sing at your church, call her at 704-798-2413.

*****


Contact Susan Shinn at 704-797-4289 or sshinn@salisburypost.com.

Congregations tear down wall by breaking bread
Saturday, April 26, 2008 11:26 PM
By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

For generations, the congregations of Soldiers Memorial AME Zion Church and St. John's Lutheran Church have worshiped within two blocks of each other in downtown Salisbury.

But race and culture placed an invisible wall between the churches, and they seldom came together as part of the same Christian community.

The Zion-Lutheran Connection — a committee made up of members from both churches — has begun work to bring down that wall. It actually started with a shared music and arts camp last summer in which youth from Soldiers Memorial and St. John's participated.

It continued Saturday with the churches' First Annual Family Music Extravaganza in the St. John's sanctuary.

After close to two hours of music, which highlighted the talents of individuals and groups from both congregations, the crowd of about 200 gathered in the Fellowship Hall for a picnic dinner.

Mark Lewis, a St. John's member and one of the Zion-Lutheran Connection leaders, described it as an historic fellowship event and an outreach activity for both churches.

It's an effort, Lewis said, "to break down any barriers that may have divided us."

The Zion-Lutheran Connection envisions the churches partnering in the future in pulpit, choir and congregation visitation exchanges; a joint prison ministry; construction of a Habitat for Humanity house; youth sports; and other outreach ministries.

The committee's mission statement is "Sharing; a common faith; Showing: the Christian walk; and Shaping: a model for the community."

"Something is at work here," said the Rev. Dr. Leonard H. Bolick, bishop of the N.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, who was a guest Saturday.

He sat through the music extravaganza with the Right Rev. George W.C. Walker Sr., presiding prelate and senior bishop of the Piedmont Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Interestingly, Bolick and Walker said the Lutheran and AME Zion churches on a national scale have been looking for ways to work together.

"We're beginning," Bolick said. "Who knows what God has in mind, but it will take place with God's spirit."

Walker said the churches' leadership officials see opportunities to share their faith through church and seminary exchanges.

In between the music and the picnic, Lewis and the Rev. Dr. Grant Harrison Jr., pastor of Soldiers Memorial, presented the bishops with framed reproductions of a Michael L. Kirksey drawing, which depicts the exteriors of both churches sitting on top of a piano keyboard and brightened by a radiating sun in the background.

People who attended the picnic were invited to take their placemats, which were laminated copies of the drawing.

The Music Extravaganza itself featured combined choirs, instrumentalists, voice solos, the St. John's Men's Chorus and the Soldiers Memorial Children's Choir.

The St. John's Chancel Choir and Soldiers Memorial's Cathedral Choir combined at the beginning and end of the extravaganza.

Joanne Harrison of Soldiers Memorial performed two organ solos.

Rosemary Kinard and Ralph Hair, both of St. John's, played flute and euphonium pieces, respectively.

Dr. Harrison sang two solos, and Ondria Durocher-Witt sang "Amazing," a song she wrote with her father, Rob Durocher, who serves as music director at St. John's.

St. John's Center Celebration musicians and singers performed two songs and joined the choirs at the end.

"I don't know when I've sat through a service (and so) thoroughly appreciated the music," Walker said after the extravaganza.

St. John's Christian rock band, Black Lavender, played at the picnic in the Fellowship Hall.

The Music Extravaganza Saturday also served a second purpose, acting as a food drive for Rowan Helping Ministries.

People attending the event donated canned goods and and the leftover food from the picnic also will go to RHM's shelter.

"We will go forth from this service tonight sharing this experience with those we come in contact with," Walker said. "Who knows what God has in store for us."

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263, or mwineka@salisburypost.com.